Every Last Time
by hanzai no shippitsu
Summary: Hector and Eliwood meet fifteen years after Dragon's Gate and disover the flexibility of word 'last'.::HectorXEliwood::T for a very good reason::


**A/N:** Short, and not really fluffy. Hav't you ever wondered why Eliwood and Hestor say they haven't seen eachother for fifteen years after Hector's coronation? Well, here's my theory!

* * *

Eliwood answered Hector's invitation with a very tentative 'yes'. It wasn't because he didn't like Hector anymore, far from it. It was the same reason he hadn't spent more then a few moments alone with his best friend in the past fifteen years. The public reason had been Hector was busy putting everything in order and had no time for anything more personal than a political marriage. Eliwood would have pleaded the same reason, but he knew it was false. 

The Lycian League was a difficult place to run, since sometimes a Marquess would threaten to leave the League, and Hector was in charge of keeping people happy and Lycia safe. It was no small task. Eliwood got monthly letters about how everything was going, and who was most annoying. Hector needed someone to rant to, or he would explode. Eliwood would never betray his confidences, and so Eliwood knew all Marquess Ostia's woes.

"Father, are we going in?" Roy asked as he peered at his father. Roy could see something was bothering Eliwood.

"Yes, we are," Eliwood smiled and put a hand on Roy's shoulder. "Come now, I hear Lilina is your age, and I'm sure you two will be good friends."

"Like you and Lord Hector?" Roy asked.

Eliwood almost faltered in his answer. "Yes, like me and Lord Hector, of course." Roy smiled and the two entered the private rooms of the Marques of Ostia. Hector's bland taste showed in everything. There was no excess thing for beauty or luxury, except a small vase of flowers arranged in a sloppy way that made Eliwood think Lilina had arranged them. Inside the room was Hector, taller and broader then ever, and a small blue haired girl in a simple dress. She smiled brightly at them

Hector smiled and caught all Eliwood's attention. "Eliwood! It's been too long." Hector advanced on him, and the two embraced as if they were still sixteen and closer than blood brothers.

Eliwood returned the hug with a slightly guilty pleasure and laughed. "It has been too long, old friend. It has."

"So," Hector stepped back and smiled down at Roy. "You must be Roy. You look exactly like your father."

"Thank you," Roy replied, and Hector laughed.

"He _sounds_ exactly like you too, Eliwood." Hector waved Lilina forward. "Roy, this is my daughter Lilina. Lilina, this is Lord Eliwood's son, Roy." The children uttered polite hellos and Lilina shuffled her feet in a gesture that was soHector-like Eliwood was surprised when she spoke in a high soprano.

"I just turned six, and father got me a pony. Do you want to ride it?" Lilina tilted her head up and the action might have been snooty of Eliwood hadn't known she got the gesture from her father, and Hector could never be called snooty.

"Yeah, ah, yes, I would like that," Roy gave Lilina a little bow, and Lilina giggled.

"Dad, can we go?" Lilina asked.

Hector gave her an endearing smile and nodded. "Just don't let Roy fall off too many times, all right?" Lilina giggled again, and Roy looked a little offended. He considered himself a very good rider.

"Have fun," Eliwood called after the children as they left at a less than decent pace. Grown-ups were very boring when they talked, and Eliwood could remember all too well when it had been he and Hector who had fled the adults long conversations for outdoor play.

"I can remember when that was us," Hector chuckled as he echoed Eliwood's thoughts.

"Everyone's worried Lilina will turn out just like me."

"I can think of a worse fate," Eliwood replied. "Only, a female you would be a little disturbing. She won't be a demure and proper court lady, I'm sure."

"While Roy will be a perfectly chivalrous knight, I'm sure. Just like his father," Hector teased and mussed Eliwood's hair. That simple gesture seemed to remove years from them.

"Hey!" Eliwood batted Hector's head away and gave his friend a mocking punch to the arm. "I'm Marquess Pheare now, and I won't stand for having my hair ruffled like some street urchin."

"Oho! Well I am Marquess Ostia, and I shall ruffle your hair like a street urchin all I want." Hector grabbed Eliwood's arm and mussed the red hair again with much more vigor. Eliwood squawked and pushed Hector away. Hector grabbed Eliwood in an head-lock before Eliwood shoved him away with a hard fist to the ribs.

A mock fight of the juvenile kind ensued. Heedless of their good clothes the two circled and scuffled with curses and laughs. Eliwood was glad old Oswin had been the at the door. Anyone else would have burst in expecting an assassination attempt and found the two Lords in a most undignified position. Eliwood hadn't done something so impulsive in years. He was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Hector seem to share his sentiments as he almost flipped Eliwood over his shoulder. "Agh, you gained weight, fluff ball."

"Or you lost muscle, oaf," Eliwood taunted. Hector responded in slinging Eliwood around and almost into a desk.

"Whoof! Well, it's good to know your just and muscle bound as always," Eliwood gasped out as he used the desk for leverage to escape Hector's onslaught. Hector, however, moved faster than Eliwood had anticipated. Eliwood was soon sitting on the desk and pinned to the back of the desk by Hector's iron grip on his shoulders.

"Give," Hector almost crowed. "Give, Eliwood, give. Just like when we were kids." Hector shook him with each 'give'. Eliwood was laughing too hard to say anything. Hector continued his demands with a boyish glee Eliwood hadn't seen in years.

"Hector," Eliwood finally gasped out. "I-" He looked at his friend, and their noses bumped. Eliwood was damp with sweat, and he could see the sheen of it on Hector's brow. Hector's face was too close, and memories of something Eliwood had spent years trying to forget were shoved into the front of his mind. The sweat and blood, and sheer exhaustion of battle rushed back to him. The remembered euphoria of victory made him feel dizzy all over again, and here, once again, was his friend, his _best_ friend, standing just a little too close.

"Oh gods, not again," Eliwood groaned. He was seconds away from committing the unthinkable, the undoable, the absolutely forbidden.

Hector beat him to it.

Fifteen years and a marriage should have taken the edge off the kiss, but it didn't. It was as wild and shocking as the first time they'd given in and the supposed last time after the battle at Dragon's Gate. This was supposed to have stopped right then after that last wild indulgence no one ever knew about. It was supposed to have been a stupid childish rush for the feeling of kissing someone that they would both grow out of.

Evidently it wasn't.

Eliwood's hands clenched in Hector's sleeve and pulled the other man closer. They were no longer boys fumbling with wet tongues and chapped lips. They were men who'd been married and each had a child playing in the courtyard below. Still, the kiss was a little too wet, a little too much tongue, and entirely too much raw desperation.

Eliwood pulled back for a gasping breath, but Hector needed no breath. He released one of Eliwood's shoulders and expertly undid the clasps of Eliwood's shirt. His teeth grazed Eliwood's neck. Eliwood bit his lip. He tugged at Hector's collar and the other man's lips returned to Eliwood's.

Eliwood bit Hector's lip and pushed against the other's mouth. One of Hector's hand was sliding down Eliwood's chest with only Eliwood's thin under tunic to separated it from skin. Eliwood leaned into the wandering hand and smothered moan in his friend's lips. Hector's hand was tugging Eliwood closer.

Everything was different, and everything was the same. Hector's rough manner of kissing was the same, even with the added bristle of his beard. The all consuming want to just give in and let everything fall down was still pulling hard, as it had years ago, but now Eliwood knew he couldn't give in. Hector knew, but that didn't stop either of them. Eliwood was beginning to think nothing would be able to stop it. It wasn't something that could be stopped.

Eliwood pulled his lips back from Hector's and pulled Hector closer to him. He grabbed Hector's ear lobe delicately in his teeth and ran his tongue slowly up the outer curl of Hector's ear. Hector hissed into Eliwood's ear. It was hard to forget the tender spots he had spent so long remembering and touching. Hector proved he too had a good memory as he drew his thumb down just above Eliwood's right hip. Eliwood's thighs tightened around Hector's hips and he almost whined.

Hector's hand drew down past Eliwood's hip, and he pulled Eliwood closer still. There wasn't any turning back now. Neither of them could stop it...

A hand knocked on the door with deafening results. Eliwood and Hector jumped like guilty children caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Which had almost happened.

"Lord Hector! You have an audience to attend!" Oswin called through the door. Hector swore into Eliwood's ear and pulled back with a reluctant sigh. Eliwood laughed and began doing up his shirt ties.

"Here," Hector batted Eliwood's hands away and did the shirt ties up quickly. "Where're your circlet?"

"Over there," Eliwood motioned vaguely and then dropped his hand. "Hector, I'm sorry."

"Don't say that, I'm the one that kissed you. I thought-I hoped, all this time would have-that this would have gone away. We're not the boys we were." Hector gave Eliwood's collar a little tug and sighed. "I didn't invite you here to molest you."

Eliwood smiled. "No, I know that, and I'm not sure it counts as molesting if we're both willing. Hector-"

"I know, we can't do this," Hector grimaced. "Gods, what a scandal that would be. I swear this is the last time Eliwood. The absolute last time."

"That's what we said at Dragon's Gate," Eliwood mused and then he shook his head. "But, you're right. We can't. We won't. We're friends, and that's the end of it, right?"

"Right," Hector nodded and handed Eliwood his circlet. "I will see you at supper, Eliwood. I have to deal with a petty squabble right now."

"I'll go see how Lilina and Roy are getting along," Eliwood said as he followed Hector out of the room.

Hector paused before they opened the doors and whispered fiercely. "Last time."

Eliwood replied in the same tone. "The last." Hector nodded and the two left the room giving no indication of what had happened inside. Eliwood knew in his mind that this had been the last time for wild indulgence of their taste for each other, but something buried deep inside whispered every time had been the last time since the first time and their would never stop being last times as long as one of them lived.


End file.
